World in Brief / EUROPE

Russia's role in Abkhazia faulted

The European Parliament said Russia's peacekeeping mission in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region is not neutral and the terms of its deployment must be changed.

The European Union assembly demanded in a nonbinding resolution that member nations send their own border mission to Abkhazia. Georgian officials have asked for EU participation in the U.N.-monitored peacekeeping forces.

Moscow has offered passports to Abkhaz residents and those of South Ossetia, another breakaway area in Georgia, and said it would establish ties with separatist institutions in the two regions.